The 21-year-old Jamaican Antonio Watson stunned with his gold medal in the men’s 400m race final at the World Athletics Championships 2023.
World Athletics Championships 2023: Men’s 400 Metres – Antonio Watson earned a stunning gold for Jamaica
It was the sixth day of the World Athletics Championships 2023 (August 24), where Watson became the only second Jamaican to win a World Championship gold medal in the men’s 400m event after finishing the race in 44.22 seconds.
The 28-year-old British Matthew Hudson-Smith was the favourite to win the race from the early of that final event. However, around the final 100m race, Watson gave his everything to surprise the world.
After Bert Cameron’s gold medal in the 1983 edition, it was the second Jamaican gold medal in the 400 metres race (including both men’s and women’s records) at the World Athletics Championships history.
World Athletics Championships 2023: Men’s 400 Metres – Great Britain & Northern Ireland had the silver medal and USA clinched a bronze medal
Hudson-Smith, the World Athletics Championships 2022 bronze medallist, finished the race as the silver medallist. He finished that race in 44.31 seconds.
United States’ Quincy Hall (44.37s) secured the bronze medal with his personal best performance in that final. His national teammate, Vernon Norwood (44.39s) was just short of Hall to miss the podium finish.
World Athletics Championships 2023: Men’s 400 Metres (Final Status)
Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
1 | Antonio Watson | Jamaica | 44.22 |
2 | Matthew Hudson-Smith | Great Britain & Northern Ireland | 44.31 |
3 | Quincy Hall | United States | 44.37 (PB) |
4 | Vernon Norwood | United States | 44.39 |
5 | Sean Bailey | Jamaica | 44.96 |
6 | Håvard Bentdal Ingvaldsen | Norway | 45.08 |
7 | Wayde van Niekerk | South Africa | 45.11 |
8 | Kirani James | Grenada | DQ |
(NOTE: PB = Personal Best)
What did Antonio Watson say?
Antonio Watson was excited for his first World Championship event, where the proud athlete had belief in himself for the best outcome.
Watson quoted in the mixed zone, "I'm feeling very excited to come out here to my first World Championship, and going home with gold, I'm just very proud of myself. I just believed. I just kept my head up and drove straight to the line and I won."
